Back in mid-1990s I did tech support in a call center. Anytime I got an uppity customer who thought he knew more than I did, I'd take him into DOS and troubleshoot from there. They instantly became docile and did exactly what they were told.
I used MS DOS on my family PC back then as a kid. Then we sold our PC and after years what I got was win 98 -> 2000 -> XP in just a few years which was quite a jump. To this day I use command prompt from time to time, lots of stuff you can only do there and also it feels quite nostalgic 😅
My computer usage goes back before DOS. I started computer programming in 1966 using 80 column punch cards and paper tape. When DOS came in it was new technology for us.
The first program I wrote in year 11 (1977) was on punch cards run on an HP 3000 minicomputer. I didn't terminate my loop and ended up with a HEAP of printout. I learned from that experience.
@@SandcastleDreams I am 77. I left school in 1966 and started work in computers. Everyone said "Why are you doing that? There is no future in those things" 😂
@@dingokidneys Ouch! That was back when we paid for our processor usage!! My pet peeve is when I was in a hurry do didn't number my cards... well, being in a rush ya know I was gonna drop them!!
Wow, this really takes me back in time. I started using PC's in 1983. We had Dos 2.1 before Windows was developed. I also used Dos 6.2 on Floppies. That's all there was for us at that time.
the days a working OS on a single floppy, it not going to long before a single hard-disk, SSD, will not be big enough no matter how terra-bites it has?
Many of these commands can be listed by typing: help at the prompt line. Why sfc isn't listed, I don't know! But I can see why DISM isn't. Should also note you can type: the command, then help after it. An exception is: sfc- you MUST type: help sfc for that to work!
This takes me back, when I built my first computer I used DOS6, I remember my first boot up with a blank screen and a, C:\ in the corner and thought now what, thanks for the memory.
In the early 90’s I had a IBM PC. No windows yet. You had to use DOS commands to do everything. I recall building a little program launcher to run Word and Lotus 1-2-3. Which i used daily.
Back then Word Perfect installed at 1.2 mb, Lotus at 1.4mb and I had a 10 mb drive!!! Woot! what does a guy do wiith all tha space?!! Leisure Suit Larry I guess...
If it is not mentioned: Disk Operating System. The OS resides on disk. It was preceded by Tape Operating System, or TOS. P.S: Windows 3.1 was the first usable version of Windows. It came before Win95. With Win3.1, you had to terminate programs in the order you opened them. Failing to do so would cause a system crash, which I believe was due to a mismanaged program stack. It was not until Windows NT that it was clear that Microsoft had their act together.
I used MS-DOS 5.0, 5.22, Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows 7, and now Windows 10 - I am NOT happy with installing Windows 11 ... Liked your video, there is one improvement though: Before you run the SFC /scannow run the DISM ... restorehealth - because that refreshes the image to the latest version witch is used by SFC to verify the Systemfiles.
Thanks for the video on this topic. I knew about dos, but had virtually forgotten about it. Not only have I learnt things from your videos, but have been reminded of others forgotten. (I'm in my late 60s and figure it's a good excuse to forget LOL) Thanks again !! 👍👍
When work rolled out Windows 3 in place of DOS, every morning I'd start the machine then close out of Windows to the DOS prompt. I could get everything done so much faster from there than from poking about in Windows. I finally gave that up when we moved to actual Windows versions of the office software but the command line has always remained my friend especially when I moved to Linux.
In the mid-1980s I taught journalism & tech writing. My course became popular with both Apple & a company that sold PCs. Both gave me computers. Steve Jobs Apple Macintosh was phenomenal & life-changing with its full GUI esp Word & icons. The Mac set me up for four decades in IT. But I'm also glad I learned Word5 for DOS & essential DOS commands. I still use them today in Windows esp CMD mode.
Command Prompt is officially called Windows Command Processor, but it's also sometimes referred to as the command shell or cmd prompt, or even by its filename, cmd.exe. Command Prompt is sometimes incorrectly referred to as "the DOS prompt" or as MS-DOS. Command Prompt is a Windows program that emulates many of the command line abilities available in MS-DOS, but it's not MS-DOS.
Something you failed to properly relate, as have many others regarding dism and sfc is that the work in conjunction. Until I learned that they are dependent I never got either to do much. They are dependent in the sense that the image that dism is managing is the source that sfc is using to compare. If the image is damage and you don't fix that first, then sfc will return that it found corrupt files but was unable to repair them. It's kind of like if you have a flat tire and you jack up the car and take off the damaged tire with out first making sure that you have a usable spare first. If you spare is flat or damaged, then you have completely wasted you time taking the first tire off the car. If you have not had much success with dism fixing problems it's probably because you did things in the right order. I totally understand this as I felt the same way about sfc not repairing files, until I learned the proper order of things. To be fair, many out there in the tech world seem to think everyone just know what they know and assume you know what order to do things in. Failing to understand that you might have lots of experience with tech, but not run into these exact circumstances. I.E. assuming you know the order.
I wouldn't recommend doing that final tip due to security vulnerabilities. You don't want to accidentally run a command as administrator when the command you use has built-in safety limitations and actually notify you that the option you want to use needs administrator access. Instead, use the standard command line and prefix any command that needs administrator access with the "RUNAS" command. Supply user credentials for a user in the administrators group and password after their parameter switches, and the actual command last.
Love that Malwarebytes command. I never knew about that. I should check if others do and learn what the options are. That's the kind of things that our security programs need to have. I know Norton can be run from disk without windows at all... but sometimes there are better options.
5:35 ... It should be noted that not all versions of Windows install Ping by default. You can add it by going to Control Panel --- Programs and Features, then Windows Features and checking the "Simple TCPIP Services" item. This will enable Ping and a whole bunch of other really cool trouble shooting commands.
Good tips. Often the profile corruption is not actually corruption but just a hiccup that prevented windows from starting up properly while loading the profile (not necessarily permanent corruption) and rather than have to start with a fresh profile and all the work getting it set up right, you can just find the path to your old profile in the registry. It will have I think from memory the word ".bak" appended to it. You just rename the key by deleting ".bak" from the name. Then restart. Probably safe to do this from a complete new profile so use your trick to setup a new profile, but don't bother setting it up just go straight to regedit and fix the path name for your previous profile. Google for more complete instructions but that's the gist of it. Various things can cause Windows to decide the profile can't be loaded and create a new blank profile for that user as a safety measure. But the old profile including not just it's files, but it's reference in the registry is still there able to be restored.
@@AskYourComputerGuy absolutely, the commands you listed are very useful and well within the novice's reach. Just thought I'd mention about the profile fix in case any one reading decides they want to try and recover their profile without setting up from scratch. At the end of the day a blank profile is a way to get back into a working gui so a very useful tip.
If sfc /scannow doesn't fix corrupt files, run the DISM command, then run SFC again. SFC depends on the health of the system image to fix corrupt files
Use the command line every day on multiple computers. Quickest way to get a lot of stuff done. I'm in my early forties but started using computers at a pretty young age, and it was pretty hard for me to get used to a GUI. Besides the dos-like commands that are still a part of windows, you can download some pretty useful thrid party command line utilities. One of my favourites is ffmpeg. But the list is endless -- and even moreso if you use LInux instead of windows, of course. never thought of using the Type command in the way you describe here. That's pretty cool actually. A neat trick if you dont' want to open a command window and want to issue a command that makes some output in a list especally is to issue the command from the run box, where you can use the > symbol to send the output to a file of your choosing.
Very true! There's tons more advanced features, but for my mostly novice audience, I tried to keep it to the basic stuff that would be most helpful for everyday needs 👍
@bikeny good creators copy, great creators steal. There’s no trademarking ideas and, I fully support any other tech RUclipsr who wants to put their own spin on content. Leo is a great guy.
Wow Scott you are a youngster :-) I go back to dos 3.1 and DR-Dps which was Digital Research Dos.. Our friend Mr Gates didn't event invent Dos. but yeah Great Video And yes... an old dog has actually learnt a new trick. SFC Keep up the good work!
@@Douglas_Blake_579 CP/M -- Control Program/Monitor, then later Control Program for Microcomputer -- created by Gary Kildall of Digital Research in 1974 Originally made for use on computers based on the 8-bit Intel 8080/8085 CPU (as well as "workalike" CPUs like the Zilog Z-80). PC/MS-DOS would be built from Seattle Computer Product's QDOS -- which was a "clone" of CP/M made for the (then new) 16-bit Intel 8086 CPU (made at a time before Digital Research released their version of CP/M-86 for Intel 8086). Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, CP/M was a "de-facto" standard -- primarily since it served as a "common ground" for application software -- that is, once you had application software that run on CP/M, and that software didn't have any hardware/firmware dependencies for a specific brand/make of computer -- that software can be run on pretty much *any* computer for which CP/M was available.
I still have my purchased copy of Spinrite 6.0.. Sometimes it would take 5 or 6 days to go through a Terrabyte HD. But unless there were lots of damaged sectors, Spinrite would save the partition.
A strange thing happened to my Acer laptop this morning. It was stuck on the Acer logo & would not go any further. I held down the left shift key & forced a hard shutdown, then got into the blue recovery screen, from there I restored it back & now it is working fine again. I have no idea why this happened, it was working fine last night.
Two occasions in the past in the past 5 days, I had the opposite. The computer would not shut down, with the "shutting down" spiral continuing to spin. If it happens again, I will investigate it further. (win 10 machine)
Well the first dos GUI from m$ was windows 3.0 not windows 95, earlier versions used a text screen based interface to create the windows and objects on screen (windows 1 to windows 386)
if you liked dos, y'all might like freedos ...i have a freedos virtual machine in virtual box with synchronet bbs software installed ...haven't got ppp or modem yet ...just going to pipe to a terminal, running sshd ...haven't messed around with it in a while
Try CTRL ALT DEL and if you can get to task manager, you can run CMD from there. The new account will remember your programs, probably very few settings. But at least you can get into Windows and start to rebuild, as well as not lose any personal files
Could you add on the video description the command that deletes temp files as it is very long? Basically so that one can copy and paste it on his or her Command Prompt. Sorry for the second comment, but I thought this would help most viewers who are not well versed in CLIs...
Thanks for that information. Saved in YT. Do you have a text file with those commands, or do I have to go through. page by page , and create a text file?
I would argue that in 2024, someone who can only access command prompt and has no other way to get their files, or check their discs for errors… Probably still pretty irrelevant. I’m sure they would see it that way.
Thanks for this Video , some good ones , but on using some commands it just give a demo, on the command's but didn't run them, do I have to have user, not administration Prompt?, Windows Key and X give me a list, so then Picked Command prompt (Admin) is that Why?..
Sorry, not 100% understanding your question, if you don't mind clarifying. Usually when the command doesn't "run", it's because you didn't type the switches needed (example: sfc without the /scannow option will just show some examples of how to run the command). Maybe that will help answer?
Very useful information, only you start your video showing a blue screen, then the first thing you talk about is checking your hosts file. This will do nothing to fix a blue screen.
Not every DOS command I cover fixes every Windows issue. But having an infected hosts file is a clue to what might be causing the problem. It's a first step in diagnosis, not a guaranteed solution. I have other videos on how to resolve other Windows issues 👍
Got a 8y old laptop, with win10 innit, wanna dual boot on two different drives (win on SSD) (ubuntu on HDD). BIOS is in legacy boot (MBR scheme) installed ubuntu on HDD using MBR BIOS in legacy. After restart bootloader choice dosent show up. Always booting to windows. How do i fix it without changing to GPT scheme boot to UEFI and setting priority.
Understood. Also understand this channel isn't for those of us who eat, sleep and breathe computers, it's primarily for a novice audience. Speaking of Mint, how do you like it? Considering my Linux distro options for some upcoming "migrate to Linux" videos. I'm pretty set on Mint for usability, any negatives from your end that might be worth mentioning?
@@AskYourComputerGuy Ah yes, Mint. Love it. I wiped Windows on at least 6 machines here, and put Mint on after a short trial. Then, with hardware problems on the two HP x360s I was using 2.5 years ago (when I did the switch), I received a new Framework 16 on Mau1, and put Linux Mint Edge on it. And copied all the files AND settings (email, browser history, everything), and also did my customization for Mint. Everything worked fine, even better since the FW 16 is a faster machine with 64 GB RAM and plenty of disk. I actually believe and know I have a better setup for usability for the kind of work I do, which is office type work, social media, cloud and application in the cloud work. Some of the software I have added is awesome..a lot of it is frankly. I do not currently do gaming, but may do a little if I ever get free time. It might seem crazy, but in Firefox I have 277 tabs open now. I just do too many things roughly at the same time.... I'd like to get it back down to 100 or so. LOL. I really doubt that I will ever use MS or even Apple in the future.
There are free host file editors you can download and remove the extra items. Consult a local pro for what the entries mean and whether it's worth a service call
And Windows users laugh at Linux for having command line terminals as standard The advantage is that you get some practice using the command line. But that's too much effort for most Windies.
Yes... just because your disk is an SSD, doesn't change the fact that file system errors can occur. Back in fat16/fat32 day, chkdsk was looking for cross-linked files and un-alloccated sectors. With NTFS, chkdsk now now looks at indexes, security descriptors and the uniqune sequence number journel ( i think USN = unique sequence number) as well as the over-all logical file/directory structures. As far as I'm aware, and I'm probably wrong, it's not a good thing (TM) to get chkdsk to check for surface defects on an SSD. I don't know off the top of my head if chkdsk will run a surface scan if it detects an SSD, if ppl know, please comment.
@@AskYourComputerGuy it harms them because the process of writing to NAND flash cells slowly wears them out. Granted the endurance is rated in TBW (terabytes written) and with most good drives you should be fine for years, but any time you write to the drive it's (ever so) slowly wearing it out. Running chkdsk shouldn't really impact it much, and if you've got errors, you really don't have much of a choice. *But absolutely do NOT run defrag on an SSD* - it won't help performance at all, and it's a fast road to wearing out the NAND flash. I wonder how much impact a Windows swap file has on SSD durability. I don't know, I run a zRAM swap on Linux myself, so I've completely avoided that issue. But I did run Windows for a while, with a swapfile on the disk. At least the drive had a DRAM cache (which not only helps with speed but also durability by helping to minimize write cycles).
hee hee hee.... On my Windows client's computer they provide for me to use, I have a NT Command Script which starts a whopping 56+ cmd.exe sessions with specific Window titles and starting directories. 😎 Those are "real" operating systems.... the GUI nonsense, nnnaaaa!!!! 🥳🤣
1 2 3 you should just put the command next to the timestamp and then let us click the timestamp for an explanation on how to use the said command we don't really need to sit here and watch all of this these are pretty basic commands that people just don't know and a lot of people don't have the time to sit there and watch 2 minutes for every command like we just want the command and a simple explanation
That's why there are chapter buttons, so you know when the next tip starts. If they were all labeled, that would take the fun out of learning. Not everyone considers these "basic" commands. That's my core audience. I'll take it under advisement, fair?
the first iteration of windows was windows 3.0 then 3.1 then 3.1.1 ,,these were the ones i used i didnot want to cause I WAS a DOS MAN AT THE TIME I laso worked with DOC, TOS and OS I knpw I am aging myself but athe time of the writing oct 25, 2024 I have bee using computers for 52 years (talk about a dinosor eh.!!!
Yeah, I was getting all excited about maybe being able to figure out how to run After Dark Ganes again, LOL! Cause if DOS is still in there...sigh, never mind! It was just a pipe dream. I miss Mowin Maniac and Toaster Run. And dang it! Nobody came out with an updated version!
agreed, and I stand corrected. Lol I’ve already gotten hammered in the comments for it. Thankfully, for the purpose of the video, the windows version isn’t that relevant. But you’re not wrong 👍
Too basic. I wish youtube would be better at recognizing skill level, instead of recommending baby steps to a power user of 20+ years. Not your fault though! 👍 (The title is misleading though, by suggesting that the commands are niche or advanced when they are quite basic, creating a disconnect between the title and the actual content. Again, not your fault, RUclips needs the clickbait for exposure. I just don't like the inherent overpromising and underdelivering aspect that results from it.)
Fair points, but one, my target audience is novice users, and two, RUclips has done a pretty good job of putting my novice user videos in front of the right people. I myself go through the same thing, I get suggested videos that are ridiculously basic and also videos that are so far over my head it melts my brain.
@@AskYourComputerGuy If you are going through the same thing I do, then youtube didn't do "a good job of putting your novice user videos in front of the right people", it put them in front of ALL THE PEOPLE, and the novices they are for stuck around. Anyway, since I already said it's not your fault that you play youtube's game the way it gives you sufficient exposure, my comment was more about giving you the necessary algorithmic endorsement, even if the content isn't for me. Best of luck for the future!
Kinda...yeah. But most people throw hate comments without understanding context. Doesn't matter if it's called Yellow Submarine, it's about the fact it exists, not what it's "called". Novice users don't care. Expert users have to always be grammatically correct, which is why most novices don't LIKE computer people 🤷♂️
DDOSBox is an actual thing. A program to allow DOS programs to run in Windows that otherwise could not, such as older games. V. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOSBox
True. There were actual several versions that would’ve been more applicable, just had a brain dump I guess. Thankfully, for the context of the video, it’s not really relevant.
Back in mid-1990s I did tech support in a call center. Anytime I got an uppity customer who thought he knew more than I did, I'd take him into DOS and troubleshoot from there. They instantly became docile and did exactly what they were told.
Shhhh! That's inside information! 😂😂😂
🤣🤣🤣
lol power move 😂
You signed nda
Ahhh... my best memory of the 90s were the 'Sysop from Hell' stories....
I used MS DOS on my family PC back then as a kid. Then we sold our PC and after years what I got was win 98 -> 2000 -> XP in just a few years which was quite a jump. To this day I use command prompt from time to time, lots of stuff you can only do there and also it feels quite nostalgic 😅
My computer usage goes back before DOS.
I started computer programming in 1966 using 80 column punch cards and paper tape.
When DOS came in it was new technology for us.
My deceased husband's father used to do that! You must be ancient! And I'm an old fart! 😂 I was 7 years old at the time.
The first program I wrote in year 11 (1977) was on punch cards run on an HP 3000 minicomputer. I didn't terminate my loop and ended up with a HEAP of printout. I learned from that experience.
@@SandcastleDreams I am 77. I left school in 1966 and started work in computers. Everyone said "Why are you doing that? There is no future in those things" 😂
@@dingokidneys Ouch! That was back when we paid for our processor usage!! My pet peeve is when I was in a hurry do didn't number my cards... well, being in a rush ya know I was gonna drop them!!
@dannybaker8030 😂
You went from DOS to Windows 95, skipping the OG Windows and then Windows for Workgroups... timeless classics.
Yeah I'm gonna catch hell for it too lol
Windows for Workgroups... Didn't that also earn the moniker "Windows for Warehouses"? 😂
@@AskYourComputerGuy I was but I will let you slide. This Time! 😉
@@AskYourComputerGuy Also Windows 3.0 and 3.1
@USBIKER26 yep 👍
I have used IBM PC Dos, MS Dos and DR Dos back in the 80s
Wow, this really takes me back in time. I started using PC's in 1983. We had Dos 2.1 before Windows was developed. I also used Dos 6.2 on Floppies. That's all there was for us at that time.
I kinda felt old admitting that on camera LOL
the days a working OS on a single floppy, it not going to long before a single hard-disk, SSD, will not be big enough no matter how terra-bites it has?
Many of these commands can be listed by typing: help at the prompt line. Why sfc isn't listed, I don't know! But I can see why DISM isn't.
Should also note you can type: the command, then help after it. An exception is: sfc- you MUST type: help sfc for that to work!
Windows 3.1 was my first O/S.
Actually Windows 3.1 was overlayed on MS Dos and you still had to boot up using an MS Dos autoexec.bat and Config.sys files.
@@johnmeneses7039 It is still there!
Win ;3.1 was about the first Win that really worked.
Same...🤜
Would you like a beer? 😂
This takes me back, when I built my first computer I used DOS6, I remember my first boot up with a blank screen and a, C:\ in the corner and thought now what, thanks for the memory.
In the early 90’s I had a IBM PC. No windows yet. You had to use DOS commands to do everything. I recall building a little program launcher to run Word and Lotus 1-2-3. Which i used daily.
Damn I remember Lotus 1-2-3...#flashback
@@AskYourComputerGuy I was a Quattro Pro guy...
Back then Word Perfect installed at 1.2 mb, Lotus at 1.4mb and I had a 10 mb drive!!! Woot! what does a guy do wiith all tha space?!! Leisure Suit Larry I guess...
If it is not mentioned: Disk Operating System. The OS resides on disk. It was preceded by Tape Operating System, or TOS.
P.S: Windows 3.1 was the first usable version of Windows. It came before Win95. With Win3.1, you had to terminate programs in the order you opened them. Failing to do so would cause a system crash, which I believe was due to a mismanaged program stack. It was not until Windows NT that it was clear that Microsoft had their act together.
I used MS-DOS 5.0, 5.22, Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows 7, and now Windows 10 - I am NOT happy with installing Windows 11 ...
Liked your video, there is one improvement though: Before you run the SFC /scannow run the DISM ... restorehealth - because that refreshes the image to the latest version witch is used by SFC to verify the Systemfiles.
Fair point 👍
Thanks for the video on this topic. I knew about dos, but had virtually forgotten about it. Not only have I learnt things from your videos, but have been reminded of others forgotten. (I'm in my late 60s and figure it's a good excuse to forget LOL) Thanks again !! 👍👍
Glad it was helpful!
My experience with the various DOS goes back to 1984. I loved DOS. It was lots of fun to use.
Agreed! then when I learned how to create batch files, there was no looking back lol
When work rolled out Windows 3 in place of DOS, every morning I'd start the machine then close out of Windows to the DOS prompt. I could get everything done so much faster from there than from poking about in Windows. I finally gave that up when we moved to actual Windows versions of the office software but the command line has always remained my friend especially when I moved to Linux.
Level 1 Tech Support achieved.
In the mid-1980s I taught journalism & tech writing. My course became popular with both Apple & a company that sold PCs. Both gave me computers. Steve Jobs Apple Macintosh was phenomenal & life-changing with its full GUI esp Word & icons. The Mac set me up for four decades in IT. But I'm also glad I learned Word5 for DOS & essential DOS commands. I still use them today in Windows esp CMD mode.
Nice!
Command Prompt is officially called Windows Command Processor, but it's also sometimes referred to as the command shell or cmd prompt, or even by its filename, cmd.exe.
Command Prompt is sometimes incorrectly referred to as "the DOS prompt" or as MS-DOS. Command Prompt is a Windows program that emulates many of the command line abilities available in MS-DOS, but it's not MS-DOS.
👍
Something you failed to properly relate, as have many others regarding dism and sfc is that the work in conjunction. Until I learned that they are dependent I never got either to do much. They are dependent in the sense that the image that dism is managing is the source that sfc is using to compare. If the image is damage and you don't fix that first, then sfc will return that it found corrupt files but was unable to repair them.
It's kind of like if you have a flat tire and you jack up the car and take off the damaged tire with out first making sure that you have a usable spare first. If you spare is flat or damaged, then you have completely wasted you time taking the first tire off the car.
If you have not had much success with dism fixing problems it's probably because you did things in the right order. I totally understand this as I felt the same way about sfc not repairing files, until I learned the proper order of things. To be fair, many out there in the tech world seem to think everyone just know what they know and assume you know what order to do things in. Failing to understand that you might have lots of experience with tech, but not run into these exact circumstances. I.E. assuming you know the order.
I wouldn't recommend doing that final tip due to security vulnerabilities. You don't want to accidentally run a command as administrator when the command you use has built-in safety limitations and actually notify you that the option you want to use needs administrator access.
Instead, use the standard command line and prefix any command that needs administrator access with the "RUNAS" command. Supply user credentials for a user in the administrators group and password after their parameter switches, and the actual command last.
Love that Malwarebytes command. I never knew about that. I should check if others do and learn what the options are. That's the kind of things that our security programs need to have. I know Norton can be run from disk without windows at all... but sometimes there are better options.
Agreed! Glsd you found it useful 👍
I appreciate this information. Thank you. 🙂
You're welcome!!!
5:35 ... It should be noted that not all versions of Windows install Ping by default. You can add it by going to Control Panel --- Programs and Features, then Windows Features and checking the "Simple TCPIP Services" item. This will enable Ping and a whole bunch of other really cool trouble shooting commands.
Good tips. Often the profile corruption is not actually corruption but just a hiccup that prevented windows from starting up properly while loading the profile (not necessarily permanent corruption) and rather than have to start with a fresh profile and all the work getting it set up right, you can just find the path to your old profile in the registry. It will have I think from memory the word ".bak" appended to it. You just rename the key by deleting ".bak" from the name. Then restart. Probably safe to do this from a complete new profile so use your trick to setup a new profile, but don't bother setting it up just go straight to regedit and fix the path name for your previous profile. Google for more complete instructions but that's the gist of it.
Various things can cause Windows to decide the profile can't be loaded and create a new blank profile for that user as a safety measure. But the old profile including not just it's files, but it's reference in the registry is still there able to be restored.
Good point! Just trying to appeal to the novices who wouldn't have a clue how to do any of that...but you're 100% right 👍
@@AskYourComputerGuy absolutely, the commands you listed are very useful and well within the novice's reach. Just thought I'd mention about the profile fix in case any one reading decides they want to try and recover their profile without setting up from scratch. At the end of the day a blank profile is a way to get back into a working gui so a very useful tip.
@techbio excellent tip, I appreciate that and I'm sure my viewers will as well 👍
If sfc /scannow doesn't fix corrupt files, run the DISM command, then run SFC again. SFC depends on the health of the system image to fix corrupt files
Use the command line every day on multiple computers. Quickest way to get a lot of stuff done. I'm in my early forties but started using computers at a pretty young age, and it was pretty hard for me to get used to a GUI. Besides the dos-like commands that are still a part of windows, you can download some pretty useful thrid party command line utilities. One of my favourites is ffmpeg. But the list is endless -- and even moreso if you use LInux instead of windows, of course.
never thought of using the Type command in the way you describe here. That's pretty cool actually.
A neat trick if you dont' want to open a command window and want to issue a command that makes some output in a list especally is to issue the command from the run box, where you can use the > symbol to send the output to a file of your choosing.
Very true! There's tons more advanced features, but for my mostly novice audience, I tried to keep it to the basic stuff that would be most helpful for everyday needs 👍
Command # 2 reminds me of the scenes in The Hunt For Red October when the 2 subs are communicating. "Give me a ping, Vasily. One ping only, please."
LOL that was absolutely my inspiration for including that. One of my favorite films ever!!!
@@AskYourComputerGuy There must be something in the water or the air because ASK LEO just posted a video on the command.
@bikeny good creators copy, great creators steal. There’s no trademarking ideas and, I fully support any other tech RUclipsr who wants to put their own spin on content. Leo is a great guy.
Wow Scott you are a youngster :-) I go back to dos 3.1 and DR-Dps which was Digital Research Dos.. Our friend Mr Gates didn't event invent Dos. but yeah Great Video And yes... an old dog has actually learnt a new trick. SFC Keep up the good work!
LOL yes sir!
DOS was a rewrite of CPM (Control Program -for- Microcomputers) written almost a decade earlier by DEC.
@@Douglas_Blake_579 one of my earlier computers, a Commodore 128, used CPM way before I bought an "IBM" type PC....LOL We must be VERY old,
@@Douglas_Blake_579 CP/M -- Control Program/Monitor, then later Control Program for Microcomputer -- created by Gary Kildall of Digital Research in 1974 Originally made for use on computers based on the 8-bit Intel 8080/8085 CPU (as well as "workalike" CPUs like the Zilog Z-80).
PC/MS-DOS would be built from Seattle Computer Product's QDOS -- which was a "clone" of CP/M made for the (then new) 16-bit Intel 8086 CPU (made at a time before Digital Research released their version of CP/M-86 for Intel 8086).
Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, CP/M was a "de-facto" standard -- primarily since it served as a "common ground" for application software -- that is, once you had application software that run on CP/M, and that software didn't have any hardware/firmware dependencies for a specific brand/make of computer -- that software can be run on pretty much *any* computer for which CP/M was available.
You owe me a beer and a painkiller 😂 I’m old enough to remember computers when the didn’t have a gui….
Fine 😂
I still have my purchased copy of Spinrite 6.0.. Sometimes it would take 5 or 6 days to go through a Terrabyte HD. But unless there were lots of damaged sectors, Spinrite would save the partition.
the dev has an update for spinrite. 👍
the dev has an update for spinrite. 👍
Great job on the video! I'm still a noob at DISM due to not needing to use it very often. Great Job! Hmmm... Maybe you should do batch next.
Heard 👍
A strange thing happened to my Acer laptop this morning. It was stuck on the Acer logo & would not go any further. I held down the left shift key & forced a hard shutdown, then got into the blue recovery screen, from there I restored it back & now it is working fine again. I have no idea why this happened, it was working fine last night.
Short answer
Windows
😂
Two occasions in the past in the past 5 days, I had the opposite. The computer would not shut down, with the "shutting down" spiral continuing to spin. If it happens again, I will investigate it further. (win 10 machine)
@@AussieD7902 I have had that happen to my PC once or twice. I just thought it may have been doing something. I'm from Australia too.👍
@@Nick41622 G'day fellow Aussie. I have had a computer that wont start on the odd occasion, this was the only times one wouldn't shut down.
@@AussieD7902 G'day fellow Aussie to you too. I think sometimes PCs seem to have a mind of their own.
Great video and reminder, thanks!
My pleasure!
I really love your videos. Thank you for your contribution to the world.
Wow! What a compliment!!! Thank you for the support 👍 ❤️
Telling the machine what you want it to do as opposed to figuring out where someone hid that?! Too logical!
👍
I remember having fun with Win 03 and WFWG
I just have nightmares (literally) about OS2/Warp. Weren't those good times? LOL
@@AskYourComputerGuy Indeed!
Those were the days, huh?
@@AskYourComputerGuy Indeed! Playing with expanded and extended memory.
@Redlined997_C2S OMG yes! Having to allocate one and another...those wee the days, huh???
It's not a secret. It's not "underground." It's a good thing it's there!
For most Windows users, it's more of a secret if they don't know it exists or how to use it 👍
Well the first dos GUI from m$ was windows 3.0 not windows 95, earlier versions used a text screen based interface to create the windows and objects on screen (windows 1 to windows 386)
👍
Another neat command is "shutdown /r /fw /t 1" This will restart to the computer Bios.
I did consider that one 👍
I started with dos 4.01, then dos 6, and programmed with turbo C for dos
if you liked dos, y'all might like freedos ...i have a freedos virtual machine in virtual box with synchronet bbs software installed ...haven't got ppp or modem yet ...just going to pipe to a terminal, running sshd ...haven't messed around with it in a while
If I cannot login to Windows, how do I get to a command prompt to run net user for a new account? Will this new account remember all of my settings?
Try CTRL ALT DEL and if you can get to task manager, you can run CMD from there. The new account will remember your programs, probably very few settings. But at least you can get into Windows and start to rebuild, as well as not lose any personal files
Thank you
You're welcome
Could you add on the video description the command that deletes temp files as it is very long? Basically so that one can copy and paste it on his or her Command Prompt. Sorry for the second comment, but I thought this would help most viewers who are not well versed in CLIs...
I will try to grab that today if I can, what I would suggest is to just pause the video and type it as shown. I’ll see what I can do.!
@@AskYourComputerGuy
Yes, that is a good alternative 👍 Keep uploading awesome stuff 😁
Are you sure it’s DOS and not CPM 😉
When I am troubleshooting over the phone and tell someone to open a command window, they always say, "Wow, old school black window."
LOL
Command prompt is an emulator? When did that happen? It's a command interface like terminal in linux and macos.
Thanks for that information. Saved in YT. Do you have a text file with those commands, or do I have to go through. page by page , and create a text file?
Each of them can be found here, great resource!
www.lifewire.com/dos-commands-4070427
I always add lines to the hosts file. It's to stop programs phoning home. My Hosts file has more than a few lines, more like 500.
Same here, but we are both experts. My videos are made for a more novice crowd who likely doesn’t have, or shouldn’t have, a crowded host file.
This would have been really cool to know and RELEVANT - back in 1988 😂
I would argue that in 2024, someone who can only access command prompt and has no other way to get their files, or check their discs for errors… Probably still pretty irrelevant. I’m sure they would see it that way.
thanks!
Welcome!
Thanks for this Video , some good ones , but on using some commands it just give a demo, on the command's but didn't run them, do I have to have user, not administration Prompt?, Windows Key and X give me a list, so then Picked Command prompt (Admin) is that Why?..
Sorry, not 100% understanding your question, if you don't mind clarifying. Usually when the command doesn't "run", it's because you didn't type the switches needed (example: sfc without the /scannow option will just show some examples of how to run the command). Maybe that will help answer?
When running cleanup image restore health how will u know if there was a file thT was corrupted will it give u a % where the file was found
Can you provide a list of these commands?
www.lifewire.com/dos-commands-4070427
what happen to windows 1 2, 3, 3.11, and even dosshell, that taged on some of the later ms-dos'es,
Very useful information, only you start your video showing a blue screen, then the first thing you talk about is checking your hosts file. This will do nothing to fix a blue screen.
Not every DOS command I cover fixes every Windows issue. But having an infected hosts file is a clue to what might be causing the problem. It's a first step in diagnosis, not a guaranteed solution. I have other videos on how to resolve other Windows issues 👍
Got a 8y old laptop, with win10 innit, wanna dual boot on two different drives (win on SSD)
(ubuntu on HDD). BIOS is in legacy boot (MBR scheme) installed ubuntu on HDD using MBR BIOS in legacy. After restart bootloader choice dosent show up. Always booting to windows. How do i fix it without changing to GPT scheme boot to UEFI and setting priority.
You sure got the comments and replies a humming👍 - 👍
LOAD "$",8,1
He forgot this one... 🤣
Yeah, nothing there that I didn't know already.
I was using computers before DOS existed.
Now using Linux Mint.
Understood. Also understand this channel isn't for those of us who eat, sleep and breathe computers, it's primarily for a novice audience. Speaking of Mint, how do you like it? Considering my Linux distro options for some upcoming "migrate to Linux" videos. I'm pretty set on Mint for usability, any negatives from your end that might be worth mentioning?
@@AskYourComputerGuy
Ah yes, Mint.
Love it. I wiped Windows on at least 6 machines here, and put Mint on after a short trial.
Then, with hardware problems on the two HP x360s I was using 2.5 years ago (when I did the switch), I received a new Framework 16 on Mau1, and put Linux Mint Edge on it.
And copied all the files AND settings (email, browser history, everything), and also did my customization for Mint.
Everything worked fine, even better since the FW 16 is a faster machine with 64 GB RAM and plenty of disk.
I actually believe and know I have a better setup for usability for the kind of work I do, which is office type work, social media, cloud and application in the cloud work.
Some of the software I have added is awesome..a lot of it is frankly.
I do not currently do gaming, but may do a little if I ever get free time.
It might seem crazy, but in Firefox I have 277 tabs open now. I just do too many things roughly at the same time.... I'd like to get it back down to 100 or so. LOL.
I really doubt that I will ever use MS or even Apple in the future.
Windows 3.1 WOW! You could get in and out of DOS at will.
I bought my 1st PC with DOS after I found out about about a DOS Shell about 90/91
Can these commands also run in power shell?
Most, if not all
@@AskYourComputerGuy Thanks.
@maxtrac1 you bet 👍
OK, so we see the hosts file, and it looks strange. What do we do? Delete the file?
There are free host file editors you can download and remove the extra items. Consult a local pro for what the entries mean and whether it's worth a service call
dos 6.22 had copy and xcopy what is the difference?
Basically the same. Xcopy has more features
No I don't need DOS commands. Bash commands? Sure.
Dos 3.21 -> Dos 6.22 👍🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰
Would have been nice if you had made CHAPTERS Boss
There are time stamps in the description 👍
Windows still uses DOS. It is built in!
nope, ever since Windows 2000/XP it has been using the Windows NT kernel, not real-mode capable DOS per se.
DOS the main part of Windows 95
And Windows users laugh at Linux for having command line terminals as standard
The advantage is that you get some practice using the command line.
But that's too much effort for most Windies.
Is chkdsk still valid in the age of SSD?
Yes... just because your disk is an SSD, doesn't change the fact that file system errors can occur. Back in fat16/fat32 day, chkdsk was looking for cross-linked files and un-alloccated sectors. With NTFS, chkdsk now now looks at indexes, security descriptors and the uniqune sequence number journel ( i think USN = unique sequence number) as well as the over-all logical file/directory structures.
As far as I'm aware, and I'm probably wrong, it's not a good thing (TM) to get chkdsk to check for surface defects on an SSD. I don't know off the top of my head if chkdsk will run a surface scan if it detects an SSD, if ppl know, please comment.
Excellent answer, thank you. Not 100% about chkdsk /r on SSD. I don't see how it would harm, but also not sure it helps either
@@AskYourComputerGuy it harms them because the process of writing to NAND flash cells slowly wears them out. Granted the endurance is rated in TBW (terabytes written) and with most good drives you should be fine for years, but any time you write to the drive it's (ever so) slowly wearing it out. Running chkdsk shouldn't really impact it much, and if you've got errors, you really don't have much of a choice.
*But absolutely do NOT run defrag on an SSD* - it won't help performance at all, and it's a fast road to wearing out the NAND flash.
I wonder how much impact a Windows swap file has on SSD durability. I don't know, I run a zRAM swap on Linux myself, so I've completely avoided that issue. But I did run Windows for a while, with a swapfile on the disk. At least the drive had a DRAM cache (which not only helps with speed but also durability by helping to minimize write cycles).
"DOS is dead." - windows 95... The tests showed, that was a lie.
I thought Windows 3.0 was the first true DOS GUI?
I could have been wrong on which version...thankfully it's not relevant to the video LOL - already catching hell from "old timers" about that 😂
Does anyone remember DOS 1.8? I think it was for internal use.
An XCOPY tutorial would be very welcome 😊
After making this video, it's absolutely on my list!
My friend, 34 is not sooo old 😂 and I used windows 3.1 and 3.11 before windows95..
😂💪
hee hee hee.... On my Windows client's computer they provide for me to use, I have a NT Command Script which starts a whopping 56+ cmd.exe sessions with specific Window titles and starting directories. 😎 Those are "real" operating systems.... the GUI nonsense, nnnaaaa!!!! 🥳🤣
DOS, DOSSHELL. That was my era. This is why Linux is child's play for me. Commands are pretty much the same. WIN 3.11 was meh.
1 2 3 you should just put the command next to the timestamp and then let us click the timestamp for an explanation on how to use the said command we don't really need to sit here and watch all of this these are pretty basic commands that people just don't know and a lot of people don't have the time to sit there and watch 2 minutes for every command like we just want the command and a simple explanation
That's why there are chapter buttons, so you know when the next tip starts. If they were all labeled, that would take the fun out of learning. Not everyone considers these "basic" commands. That's my core audience. I'll take it under advisement, fair?
the first iteration of windows was windows 3.0 then 3.1 then 3.1.1 ,,these were the ones i used i didnot want to cause I WAS a DOS MAN AT THE TIME I laso worked with DOC, TOS and OS I knpw I am aging myself but athe time of the writing oct 25, 2024 I have bee using computers for 52 years (talk about a dinosor eh.!!!
Us dinosaurs have to stick together! 😂
Checking closet for Windows 3.11
Dang, forgot about 3.x!
Aura gave me a plether of malicious software be careful.
Actually, it's NOT DOS. It will run some DOS commands, but you CANNOT run ANY DOS programs in it.
👍
Yeah, I was getting all excited about maybe being able to figure out how to run After Dark Ganes again, LOL!
Cause if DOS is still in there...sigh, never mind! It was just a pipe dream. I miss Mowin Maniac and Toaster Run. And dang it! Nobody came out with an updated version!
no... it's not "dos" anymore.. they didn't just change the name... I'm really tired of people still spreading this nonsense
Ok. But for novice users, the verbiage doesn't really matter. It's the command options that actually matter.
@@AskYourComputerGuy then call it the commandline/terminal!
real men use the command line. copy & paste this. :)
👍👍
WIndows 1.0 - 3.0 was a graphical share on top of DOS. Windows 95/98/ME are still on top of DOS. Windows XP finally killed off DOS
agreed, and I stand corrected. Lol I’ve already gotten hammered in the comments for it. Thankfully, for the purpose of the video, the windows version isn’t that relevant. But you’re not wrong 👍
*shell not share
Too basic. I wish youtube would be better at recognizing skill level, instead of recommending baby steps to a power user of 20+ years. Not your fault though! 👍
(The title is misleading though, by suggesting that the commands are niche or advanced when they are quite basic, creating a disconnect between the title and the actual content. Again, not your fault, RUclips needs the clickbait for exposure. I just don't like the inherent overpromising and underdelivering aspect that results from it.)
Fair points, but one, my target audience is novice users, and two, RUclips has done a pretty good job of putting my novice user videos in front of the right people. I myself go through the same thing, I get suggested videos that are ridiculously basic and also videos that are so far over my head it melts my brain.
@@AskYourComputerGuy If you are going through the same thing I do, then youtube didn't do "a good job of putting your novice user videos in front of the right people", it put them in front of ALL THE PEOPLE, and the novices they are for stuck around.
Anyway, since I already said it's not your fault that you play youtube's game the way it gives you sufficient exposure, my comment was more about giving you the necessary algorithmic endorsement, even if the content isn't for me. Best of luck for the future!
Its NOT DOS its only a shell in a terminal emulation window, dont talk this crap to people
That's almost exactly what he said in the video.
Kinda...yeah. But most people throw hate comments without understanding context. Doesn't matter if it's called Yellow Submarine, it's about the fact it exists, not what it's "called". Novice users don't care. Expert users have to always be grammatically correct, which is why most novices don't LIKE computer people 🤷♂️
Ok
DDOSBox is an actual thing. A program to allow DOS programs to run in Windows that otherwise could not, such as older games. V.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOSBox
1: format c: /q/u/s
2: del /s /q /f c:*.*
Good luck.
🤣
Systam32, I'm running systam64 ???
Errr you missed out Windows 3 - that came way before Windows 95.
True. There were actual several versions that would’ve been more applicable, just had a brain dump I guess. Thankfully, for the context of the video, it’s not really relevant.
@@AskYourComputerGuy Bring back GPF's :O.
format C:\ /s /y
Not helpful lol